Life's Lessons
by Marie S Zachary
Summary: AU to Mr. Monk and the end Monk dies and at his funeral the people who have been inspired by him talk and share the lessons they've learned


Disclaimer: I don't own Monk or any affliated characters**

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**Leland's point of view  
**((Lesson #1 follow your heart))**  
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**Randy once asked me if I could go back is there anything I would do differentially**. I thought about that for a long time. I used to think that the answer was yes. I've made plenty of mistakes. There have been times where I lost my temper too quickly or I would be more concerned about **my needs and wants**then the needs and wants of the people I love.

If I had done things differentially, if I had made different choices then maybe things wouldn't be the way they are today. I think if I could go back for example… I might have talked to my wife more openly and found out what she was up to from her, not have her followed. That was inappropriate and wrong. I also would have been on her side a lot more then I was. I was so worried about what other people thought—what other people felt… how other people would view me that I put my love for my wife second. Monk never cared about what other people thought. He did what he felt was right and consequences be damned.

I remember one time that will always stick in my mind. Trudy, Monk's wife had been accused of a crime. There had been a trial, she had been found guilty and she was sentenced to wear an electric bracelet. The bracelet gave off random shocks. I could see it was torment for him as well as if not more then for her. Husbands would be supportive. I know I would have been if Karen was in that spot. I wouldn't however have done what Adrian Monk had done. Monk had taken the bracelet off of Trudy and put it on himself. I only found out because he got a shock during role call.

I won't go into what happened with the conversation between Monk and I but I did confront Trudy when I saw her. I asked her why she had let Monk do that. She just looked at me and said, "You should know by now Leland that nobody **lets **Adrian do anything. Adrian does what Adrian feels he should do and arguing with him is pointless not to mention impossible"

Monk was nowhere nearby. I wouldn't have confronted her in front of him. I knew that he was nowhere near the coffee shop because at that very moment he was cleaning my office. I had allowed him to do so as a privilege. Most people would see it as a punishment but if you have ever heard of Adrian Monk you will understand why he sees it as a privilege. Anyway I thought about that. I had to concede that she was right. To the day that she died she maintained that she never committed the crime that she was accused of. The sad thing is that towards the end… I actually believed her.

I was always a skeptic. I was full of doubt. It was just the way I became I suppose after seeing hundreds of people who had passed… tons of people who had been murdered and plenty of people be stolen and violated physically and emotionally my oldest child and only daughter being among them. It's hard to keep a positive attitude after that. As a matter of fact it's almost outright impossible. I wish I could but sometimes it's all I can do to keep myself from getting mad.

So Randy to answer your question, no I wouldn't change anything. That may shock you (no pun intended) because I have spoken of the mistakes I made. Let me explain. You see, with every mistake that I made and with everything that I lost I also gained something too. I gained a life lesson. I learned how to avoid mistakes in the future. Now I may never get back what I lost but thanks to the lessons I've learned at the people who love me I am well on my way to becoming someone better then I've ever been.

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**Ambrose's point of view**

((Lesson #2 there are no losers as long as you play the game))

**I'm going to tell you something that will probably surprise you**. I have done some stupid things in my past. I don't say this will probably surprise you because I'm some egotistical jerk who things his fecal matter doesn't have an odor. I say it because of the fact that I'm afraid to live. I haven't left my house since I was about 24. I'm almost 45 now. So the fact that I've even had an opportunity to mess up is why you would be surprised.

Messing up for anyone else is not a big deal but I'm very hard on myself. When I mess up I will emotionally beat myself up over it calling myself a loser and not fit to live amongst people. My brother one time said that I needed to stop doing that to myself. He told me that every person in this world make mistakes. If I hadn't made mistakes I wouldn't be a person. I would be like this blob. He said we weren't made to be blobs. We were made to be people.

I told him that he didn't know what I did. He pointed out that first of all it doesn't matter and secondly yes he did know what I did and it didn't matter. I explained that I only did what I did because I didn't want to look stupid the next day. I had a date with a girl I had a huge crush on in grade school. He pointed out that the only thing that looked stupid was my attitude about myself. He hated it when I second-guessed myself and when I was so hard on myself. I didn't understand at the time but I would later come to make sense of it.

Another time I did something I was really excited about. I kissed a girl that I loved. My brother asked me who it was and I got very mysterious about it. He looked at me like, _you've got to be kidding_ but even in that look I could see he was cheering me on. I explained to him that for one brief moment I felt like a winner and not a loser. He replied that the only thing that upset him about any of that was that I was referring to myself as a loser. I was in no way, shape or form and loser. It hurt him that I couldn't see that about myself. That led to another interesting conversation but it would probably take days to tell you about that.

My brother was always afraid of change and just like he called me on my errors I would call him on his. We were talking about the steps once and Adrian said, "she's not ready". Well actually let me back up. I had a practice date before my real date and I asked my brother if it was appropriate to get a gift for a friend. He said yes it is but an appropriate gift. I knew what I was going to get her. I was going to give her momma's first step broach. He said she wasn't ready. I came back, "she isn't, or you're not?" to which he replied, "it's one and the same". What my brother taught me in that was that I needed to stop seeing myself in such a negative light..

When my brother was alive, after Trudy died he used to wonder what he was here on Earth for. Without her there didn't seem to be any point in living. He was wrong. Without my brother this world would be a far worse place then it is. There would be far too many killers on the loose. There would also be one less man alive today if it wasn't for him. That man would be me. I was contemplating taking my life. Adrian showed me that my life was worth living, that I had people who loved me and that if I did that he would be very mad at me. Adrian **never **gets mad. I only saw him get mad one time and it was scary.

Well I definitely did not want my brother getting mad at me. So I figured it wasn't worth it. It was Adrian that got me going out of my house slowly at first then gradually little by little I came to be more confident. Adrian was always practical but I think he was a bit whimsical too. I think he wanted to believe in something bigger then himself. I think he wanted to believe in a higher power. I think he wanted to believe in something better then himself. I know he wanted to and did believe in Trudy.

I'm going to miss my little brother a lot but I am comforted by knowing that he's finally with his beloved. I'm comforted in knowing that he's finally with the one that he needed to be with. Adrian was nothing without Trudy and he was everything because of her. I am nothing without my brother and I am everything because of him. Someday I will see him again. Until I do he will always be in my thoughts, my heart, my dreams and my memory. He taught me that it's okay to let go. He taught me that it's okay to make mistakes. He taught me I should learn to trust myself. Now his job on earth is through but there's still more in store for him… so until tomorrow comes… I'll see you again.

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**Natalie's point of view**

((Lesson #3 just because you can't understand something doesn't make it untrue))

**"It's obvious**." That's what Mr. Monk always said. To him it was obvious. To anyone else it wasn't obvious at all. Mr. Monk could look at things and see something nobody else could see. I remember one particular event that taught me a very powerful lesson.

Captain Stottlemyer was in the middle of role call when Mr. Monk came in excited. He started yelling at the top of his voice how Jennifer, Stottlemyer's oldest child was alive. Everyone looked at Mr. Monk like he lost his mind. Then he explained.

As usual Monk was right. He always is right. I approached him later and asked him how he knew. He looked at me like I was crazy shrugged and said, "it's obvious" and I learned that just because you don't understand something or someone doesn't mean they're wrong. It means that they're unique ad special. Goodbye Mr. Monk. I love you.

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**Sharona's point of view**

((Lesson 4 Slow down and take a step back then go forward))

**Adrian used to piss me off**. I loved him. I really did but he tested my patience every which way he could. It always had to be his way. If I did something one way and he didn't approve it was like the E-BLANKIN'-BOLA plague. He would watch my every move. He would shadow me like I was a moron that wasn't capable of handling things without his help.

As if that wasn't bad enough he would over-rule me and not quietly either. He wouldn't just quietly take me aside and say, "now Sharona you're wrong in this instance because (x, y, z). If he had done that I would have understood and appreciated his input. He would literally tell me loudly and in a way that was embarrassing what I had (in his mind) done wrong. He would say things like, "No you can't do it that way. Now you have to do it one more time because it's an odd number."

He actually had the nerve to tell Benjy to just ignore me once and that I was being stupid. I thought I was going to rip him a new one. I didn't realize at the time that he was just expressing his need for order to be a certain way. In that he was expressing his love for people. In his eyes if things weren't in the order he wanted it, it was disruptive to the way he felt life should be. If it was disruptive to the way he thought life should be then he felt everyone would be disrupted including the people that he loves. If that happened he saw it turning into a complete and utter disaster. There were times few and far between when Adrian was right. When he was right I would let him know it. Sometimes I would cut him some slack when he was wrong as well.

I told him a couple of times, "don't even think about it" and I've put my foot down sometimes. Once I told him I don't care if it made him uncomfortable. Sometimes you have to do what you're not comfortable with in order to move forward. I know that sometimes that sounded mean but it was in his best interest. I wasn't going to let his fear cripple him. Then, one day after I told him to do something he **really **didn't want to do he looked at me with his hands in his chin and cocked his head to the side. He said something to me I will never forget. He said, "You know I don't think you're making me do this because you think I should do it. I think you're making me do it because you don't want to do it and by the virtue of the fact that you don't want to do it, that means you know it shouldn't be done"

I started to argue the point but I realized something. He was right. I didn't want to do that any more then he wanted to do it. I could think of about a thousand things I would rather be doing but I was frustrated, on edge and didn't know what else to do. He taught me how to think before I acted. He taught me how to put the people I loved first. It was no surprise that he was there for Trudy. He loved her more then can ever be expressed and he's with her now. BUT here's a little known fact. He was there for me too when I was in a tough spot. Goodbye Adrian. You piss me off but I will always love you. I'll see you in heaven.

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**Randy's point of view**

((Lesson #5 make the best out of it and always look ahead))

**Of course nobody likes getting in trouble.** When I knew it was going to happen to me, what would I do? I would whine and pout and try to manipulate my way out of trouble. It wouldn't work (most of the time) but that's the only way I knew how to react.

Then one day I saw Monk getting in trouble for something which was a rare occurrence. Although he was a bit uncomfortable he had a smile on his face and wasn't whining, pouting, crying or manipulating. I asked him how he did it. How did he take it on the chin like that? He looked at me with a smile and put a hand on my shoulder. This was before Trudy died so his fear of germs wasn't so bad.

He looked at me and told me wisely that there was no point in getting upset about something you have no control over. If something is going to happen it is going to happen. You taught me to be comfortable in my own self Monk. Thank you. I love you man


End file.
